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Trichinella
- Thread starter Grof
- Start date
Yes, pigs are carriers of Trichinella cysts, and can pass the parasite to humans, where it can cause no symptoms to flu-like symptoms in mild cases, and in severe cases can kill a person. The cyst can be killed by freezing for 10 days at 0 degrees F or lower, or by thorough cooking of meat to 160 degrees F. FWIW, all sorts of animals can carry and transmit trichinosis, including cattle and other ruminants like deer and elk, as well as predators like cats, dogs, coyotes, etc. Trichinella infect animals by being eaten, then migrate out of the intestine to the muscles where the cysts are encapsulated in muscle tissue of the animals. If you eat the cyst, you get trichinosis.
Our mothers were right!
One of several reasons why it's foolish to eat wild game that isn't well-done. Salmonella is often associated with chickens and trichinella with pigs but almost any food can be contaminated, depending on how it's handled. E. coli is harmless, and even necessary, in the lower G.I. tract but it will make you very sick if it gets into the upper digestive system. Just another reason to handle and cook food properly.
FWIW - a local deer processor recently died from butchering a hog without gloves. I'm not sure what the final cause-of-death was but he was older and not in the best health to begin with. He got sick with flu-like symptoms, didn't respond to treatment and was dead before they figured out what the problem was. My point being: most healthy people will just get sick and then they get better and might never realize that it was food poisoning. The young, old and people with depressed immune systems may not be able to fight it off and recover.
One of several reasons why it's foolish to eat wild game that isn't well-done. Salmonella is often associated with chickens and trichinella with pigs but almost any food can be contaminated, depending on how it's handled. E. coli is harmless, and even necessary, in the lower G.I. tract but it will make you very sick if it gets into the upper digestive system. Just another reason to handle and cook food properly.
FWIW - a local deer processor recently died from butchering a hog without gloves. I'm not sure what the final cause-of-death was but he was older and not in the best health to begin with. He got sick with flu-like symptoms, didn't respond to treatment and was dead before they figured out what the problem was. My point being: most healthy people will just get sick and then they get better and might never realize that it was food poisoning. The young, old and people with depressed immune systems may not be able to fight it off and recover.
Double Naught Spy
New member
FWIW - a local deer processor recently died from butchering a hog without gloves.
Nobody dies from not wearing gloves. He might have died from an infection due to some sort of germ, bacterium, or parasite that somehow entered his body from an infected pig. Maybe it entered via his hands through something like a wound or maybe touched his hand to his face or was splashed/sprayed in the face with infected fluids, the infection getting into the eyes, nose, or mouth as an entry way into the body.
The butcher probably did not die from trichinellosis as a result of butchering the pig without gloves, however. Typical infection occurs from consumption of raw or undercooked infected meat, not just simply contact with it.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dpd/parasites/trichinosis/factsht_trichinosis.htm
You're splitting hairs and I was omitting the details to prove a point. Not wearing gloves obviously wasn't the proximate cause of his death. I believe you are correct in stating that some sort of pathogen likely entered his system through a wound, which was left open due to not wearing gloves. I also didn't say that the died of trichinosis or complications thereof.
Even the doctors who treated him couldn't say for sure how he came to be infected but he was a butcher and he didn't always wear gloves when gutting and caping out animals. I know it's a circumstantial case but the implication is obvious.
Even the doctors who treated him couldn't say for sure how he came to be infected but he was a butcher and he didn't always wear gloves when gutting and caping out animals. I know it's a circumstantial case but the implication is obvious.